This invention relates to an apparatus for grasping and lifting objects such as stones and the like.
For the purpose of cleaning underground drains, it is often necessary to effect flushing of those drains to remove silt, stones and the like which tends to collect at the bottom of the drain and will eventually clog the drain if not regularly removed. For this purpose various cleaning nozzles have been developed which can be inserted into the drain to inject high pressure water streams into the drain to flush the silt along the drain to a point from which it can be removed.
In some cases relatively heavy objects particularly stones enter the drains and can collect with the silt. The silt and small stones can be lifted from the drain by a conventional suction system which vacuums the water, silt and lightweight material from the drain into a collection tank on a suction truck. However heavier stones cannot be lifted by the vacuum stream or in some cases are sufficiently large so that they cannot enter into the vacuum line which is generally at a diameter of the order of six to eight inches.
Up till now it has been necessary for an operator to enter the drain to manually grasp the stone and to lift it from the drain. This is of course highly inconvenient and can be dangerous so that it is much preferred if the stone can be lifted remotely from the ground surface by a device which is inserted into the drain and lifts the stone vertically upwardly. Up till now no device suitable for this purpose has been found by the present inventor on the marketplace and therefore the present inventor has developed a particular device which is used for grasping and lifting stones and similar objects from a remote location using a handle for manipulating the lifting device.